Live Love Lacrosse (3 page)

“I have to ask my mom.” Addie didn’t think she really needed to
get permission from her mother, she just wasn’t sure if she wanted anything
more to do with lacrosse. It was tiring and kind of pointless. Who cared if that
stupid little ball went in that stupid goal anyway? All she wanted to do was go
home, resurrect her candy bar, and finish reading her book.

Chapter 3

About Your Mom and Me

ADDIE HAD BUTTERFLIES in her stomach. Her father had driven a
whole hour and a half from Watertown to pick them up and take them out to
dinner on Sunday afternoon. She and Troy sat across from him in the booth at
Ginny’s Hometown Diner. They were even going to the movies after. Of course
they were going to see some kind of martial arts war movie that Troy wanted to
see, but Addie didn’t care because she was with her dad. It had been over two
weeks since she’d last seen him.

Her father and Troy were talking about the Red Sox, their favorite
team, but she wasn’t the least bit interested. She bent her head to take a sip
from her Pepsi and slyly looked up at her father. He’d cut his short ginger
hair into a crew cut, almost a baldy, but it still looked good. How could it
not? Daddy was so handsome. He looked a little tired around his eyes though,
but his tan looked nice. He worked for the Watertown Department of Public
Works, so he was out in the sun all the time.

“Three game series with the Yanks next week,” her father said to
Troy.

“Sweep!” Troy punched a fist in the air.

“I dunno, Troybot,” her father said, using the nickname Troy
hated, “they’re playing in the Bronx. It’s hard to win all of ’em away from
home, but, who knows? One game at a time, eh, Troybot?”

If the two of them weren’t talking about the
stupid Red Sox, then they were talking about the stupid Buffalo Bills or
Syracuse football or Syracuse basketball or Syracuse anything.

If she didn’t find a way into the conversation, they’d go on for
years. “I played lacrosse yesterday,” she blurted.

Troy burst out laughing, so she shot daggers at him from her eyes.
Her father’s smile made her heart melt instantly. Deep down she hadn’t been
sure if she’d ever see it again.

“Lacrosse is it, Weeble?”

“Da-ad,” Addie whined, “don’t call me that.”

He called her Weeble because she had wobbled
when she was a baby taking her first steps. Apparently
Weebles
were fat
roly poly dolls that he played with when he was a kid or something. They
wobbled, but they didn’t fall down. Something like that. Personally she had
never seen one and didn’t want to. She didn’t like being compared to a roly
poly anything.

“Sorry, Weebs. So tell me about this sudden interest in lacrosse.
In sports. In something other than reading.”

She caught the twinkle in his eye and all was forgiven.

“I made a friend. She lives on Grandma’s street. She’s Chinese, I
mean, Japanese, and she likes lacrosse. A lot. So we went to this park and met
her other friend Brooke, and I used a stick and threw the ball at her to score
goals.”

“Did you score any?”

Addie felt her cheeks get warm. “No, but Kimi said I did pretty
well for my first time ever.”

“That’s great, Weebs. When’s your first game?”

“Ha, ha, Dad.” She shoved a few French fries in her mouth. “It’s
not like I’m on a team or anything.”

“Why not?”

She almost choked on the fries. “I just helped out my friend.
Crud, I’m not making this a permanent thing.”

Her father laughed and told them to hurry up and finish their
burgers. She noticed that he had barely picked at his own food. It was no
wonder he was always so thin. Guess he’d never heard of Grandma’s “don’t waste
food”rule. Maybe her father would let her have the rest of his fries.

Troy beat her to the punch. “Can I have your fries, Dad?”

“Split them with your sister.”

Troy groaned, but did as he was told.

After snarfing down the fries, they slid out of the booth. She
reached back and grabbed her father’s half-finished chocolate shake.

“Don’t waste food,” she mumbled and then sucked down the
remainder. With a satisfying burp, she ran after her father and brother.

It was her turn to ride shotgun, so she didn’t even call it. Troy
knew his place and slid into the tiny backseat of the extended cab on her
father’s battered pickup truck. Addie wanted to turn and stick her tongue out
at him, but didn’t want her father to yell at her. Things were going pretty
okay up to that point, and if she and Troy could be good then maybe, just
maybe, their parents would stop fighting and they could finally go home to
Watertown.

“So tell me about living at Grandma’s,” her father said as he
pulled the truck onto the main road. Before Addie or Troy could answer, he
said, “What’s with all the ripped screens on the front porch? I could have
those screens replaced in an hour. Not that your grandmother would let me
anywhere near her front door.”

Addie nodded, not quite sure what to say. It was true. For some
reason, her grandmother got cranky at the mention of her father. He didn’t even
go up to the front door when he picked them up. He sat in his truck across the
street and honked the horn. He didn’t need to honk, though, Addie had been
dressed and ready since seven that morning.

“And the front lawn,” he added. “Doesn’t she even care how crappy
her yard looks?”

Addie wasn’t sure how to answer, and got a little nervous about
the strange look on her father’s face.

“I mean, where’s the grass? It’s full of weeds
and garbage. And leaves. She could at least rake up the leaves. Take pride in
your house, for God’s sake. Jesus.” He shook his head, obviously disappointed
in the state of his mother-in-law’s home.

“I think she works long hours at the plant,” Addie offered.

“Don’t worry about it, Weebs,” he said, without looking at her.
“There’s nothing you can do about it.”

Addie searched her brain for something to break up the
ever-increasing awkward silence. “How’s Miss Sheila?”

“Why, did Mommy say something?”

Addie was startled by how quickly he had answered. She wished
she’d never opened her mouth.

“No, Daddy, she didn’t say anything. I was just wondering how her
new puppy was.” That wasn’t exactly true, but she had to think of something.

“Chance? He’s fine. Getting big. She’s got a baby kitten now,
too.”

“She does?” Addie loved going next door to Miss Sheila’s house.
She lived there all by herself and made cookies whenever Addie came over. Her
mother always made her go over with her dad. She was supposed to be her
father’s handyman apprentice or something, but that never happened. He and Miss
Sheila always said she could sit in the big recliner and read her book. And eat
cookies, of course. “What’d she name the kitten?”

“We named him Prince Charles.”

We
? She wanted to ask why he had helped her name the new kitten, but
instead said, “That’s cute. Tell Miss Sheila I said hi.”

“Me, too,” Troy said from the back seat.

Her father nodded once, and they rode the rest of the way to the
Eastwing Mall in silence. Seeing her father today was supposed to make
everything right again. But instead, it made her hyper aware of everything. Her
parents’ fight, staying at Grandma’s, no friends . . . except maybe Kimi. Was
Daddy always going to be this mad when he came to visit? Why did her stupid
parents have to be in a fight anyway? And why couldn’t her grandmother take
better care of her house and yard? Even though Addie had no clue how to fix
screens on a front porch, she did know how to rake a front lawn. Next time her
father pulled up, the yard would look a thousand times better.

The mall loomed large ahead of them as they pulled in. There was a
Dick’s Sporting Goods right in front, just like they had at their mall in Watertown,
and a Sears around the corner. The mall was kind of boring looking, all gray
cement and old. Old like a lot of buildings in Syracuse.

Her father pulled into a parking spot near the AMC Theater.
Surprisingly, they were able to park pretty close to the side entrance. That
never happened in Watertown. Maybe Syracuse had more movie theaters to choose
from, or maybe people didn’t go to the movies on Sunday afternoon. Addie wasn’t
sure, and she didn’t really care, because soon enough she’d be back home in Watertown.

Once inside, Addie and Troy ran to the concession stand. The cool
thing about going to the movies with their father was that she could get her
own big bucket of popcorn, candy, and her own soda. When they went to the
movies with their mother, she made her share everything with her jerk brother.

Troy went in the row first, then their dad, then Addie. Once
seated, she dug into her popcorn even though she was still stuffed from lunch.
Throughout the movie she kept sneaking peeks at her father to make sure he was
really there. Her heart ached a little bit knowing that once he dropped them
back off at Grandma’s he’d go back home and leave them there. Would they see
him every week? The ache in her chest tightened and she moved to share the arm
rest with her father. The feel of his flannel shirt against her bare arm eased
the squeezing in her heart a little.

After the movie they went for ice cream in the mall food court.
Even Addie had to admit she was stuffed when they pulled up to Grandma’s house.
Neither she nor Troy opened their doors to get out. She could sense that even
Troy, the ninja-in-training, was upset over their father leaving.

“When can we come home, Dad?” Addie blurted.

Her father looked away, but not before Addie saw the tears in his
eyes. He wiped at his eyes before turning to face her. “I don’t know, honey. I
don’t know.” His voice cracked with emotion, so he cleared it. “Did Mommy say
anything?”

Addie shook her head.

“About your mom and me . . .” He cleared his throat again. “I have
to let her cool down, before I can even begin to apologize.”

Addie wanted to ask what he had to apologize for, but didn’t.

“That’s why you guys are spending the entire summer here at
Grandma’s,” he said.

“The whole summer?” Addie burst out. She leaned toward the front
seat. Her mother hadn’t said a word about them being there for the whole
summer.

Troy looked as dumbfounded as she felt. “Are we going to school
back home or here?”

“I don’t know. It’s up to your mother.”

Addie deflated against the back seat. There was a buzzing in her
ears as her mind went numb.

Chapter 4

Big-boned Gal

“CAN I GO with you?” Troy asked, his mouth full of Frooty-O’s.

“No,” Addie snapped. She pushed her finished bowl of cereal away
from her. “Get your own friends.” She stood up and called to her mother in the
living room. “I’m going to the park with Kimi.”

“Okay,” came the quick answer. “Be home for dinner.”

Addie blocked out Troy’s protests about
leaving her cereal bowl on the table and plopped down on the front porch steps
to wait for Kimi. Hopefully, she could just watch, but just in case Kimi
dragged her into the practice, she had snagged a pair of her brother’s sports
socks to wear and had on a much looser pair of shorts that she could breathe
better in. Of course, she couldn’t do anything about her worn-out sneakers. 

After no time, Kimi was there. Addie leaped off the step and ran
to the sidewalk. She grabbed Kimi by the arm. “C’mon, the jerk’s trying to get
me in trouble.”

“Okay,” Kimi said and took off running. That wasn’t exactly what
Addie had in mind but did her best to keep up.

Addie ran out of breath before they’d even reached the corner to
Miner Boulevard, and they had to slow down to a walk. It was kind of
embarrassing, but she hoped Kimi remembered that she wasn’t really a runner or
into sports of any kind. She wasn’t even sure why she agreed to go to Kimi’s
lacrosse tryouts in the first place.

They walked the rest of the way and as they turned into Webster
Park, Addie’s jaw dropped open at the field full of people. A whole bunch of
girls, thirty maybe, were in various stages of stretching or running or having
a catch. There were even two real coaches, each holding an official and
important-looking clipboard. And there seemed like a gazillion people on the
sidelines either sitting in portable folding chairs or standing around talking
to each other. These must be the girls’ parents or something.

“Zoinks,” Kimi said. “Everybody’s here already.” She smacked Addie
on the arm. “Hey, I better run, or Coach Marks will make me run laps for being
late.”

“Good luck,” Addie called after the fleeing Kimi. She felt bad
that she was so slow. It had almost made Kimi late for her tryout.

Addie slowed down to a more human pace. She passed the jungle gym
teeming with little kids and headed for a patch of grass behind the players’
area. The grass was soft underneath her and the clear blue skies made her wish
she had brought her new book. In the last book, Captain Janeway and the Voyager
crew managed to get out of its mess with the Kazon, but, unfortunately, they
now had enemies in the Delta Quadrant. Addie was grateful that her grandmother
let her have free reign of the books on her shelves; it made being away from
home a little more tolerable. Just like making friends with Kimi made Syracuse
more tolerable, too.

A shrill blast from a whistle pierced the
early morning calm. Addie covered her ears against the assault and watched the
girls gather around the coaches. The male coach with the whistle barked out
instructions for the girls to get in lines for stretching. The scowl on his
face made Addie wonder why anybody would want to voluntarily play for him. That
had to be Coach Marks. Kimi had described him as tall and intense. Yeah, he was
intense, all right. But whatever. It wasn’t like she was ever going to play on
his team and let him boss her around.

The girls lined up in four neat rows while the female coach led
them through some stretching exercises. A thought squiggled its way through
Addie’s mind. Maybe if she stretched like the girls were doing, she might be
able to keep up with Kimi better. She stood up and mimicked what the players on
the field were doing. She couldn’t quite reach her toes and felt a hot wave of
embarrassment, so she sat right back down with a thump. It was a stupid idea.
The jerk was right; she was a lardy lardo fatty fatso. Her father was right,
too. She
was
one of those Weebles.

Addie sat cross-legged and picked at the grass while the practice
got started. The parents, who had been talking like crazy, got really quiet
once the girls started doing drills. It was weird. It wasn’t like their
daughters were playing in an actual game or anything. What was the big deal? In
fact, Addie thought, it was pretty boring.

She was seconds away from sneaking back home,
by way of the 7-11 for a candy bar, two probably, when mean Coach Marks looked
her way and said, “Hey, kid. What are you doing?”

“What? Me?” Addie sat up taller.

“Yeah, you. Big-boned gal.” He looked at her like she was an
idiot. He waved the clipboard toward the field where a bunch of players were
trying to score goals against Brooke. Some of the balls sailed into the grassy
area behind the goal. “We need help running down stray balls. Think you can do
that, kid?”

“Sure.” Addie stood up, but kept her tummy sucked in so the coach
wouldn’t think she was a lardy lardo fatty fatso wobbly Weeble.

“Great.” He turned away. “Just don’t get too close,” he called
after her.

“Okay.” Addie ran behind the goal, hoping Brooke would stop every
single ball, but as soon as the thought entered her head, a ball came whizzing
past the goal and skipped toward the basketball courts.

“Crap,” Addie said as she ran after the loose
ball. Out of breath, she finally caught up to it and cursed again. Coach Marks
hadn’t told her what to do with the balls once she tracked them down. She
growled and then pulled her hair back into a manageable ponytail. This was
going to be a long morning.

“Over here,” the female coach called to Addie. “Roll it underhand
toward the bucket.” The coach was really pretty and really fit. She had her
dark hair pulled back into a braid. It wasn’t as dark as Kimi’s, but close.
Addie felt another wave of embarrassed heat course through her, but squashed it
as she rolled the ball toward the white bucket.

For the entire workout, Addie helped pick up loose balls and fill
up the girls’ water bottles at the fountain at the basketball courts. After a
while, she didn’t wait to be asked to help, she just saw the balls flying away
from the field and went over to scoop them up.

The practice was finally over, and all of the girls, Kimi and
Brooke included, looked sweaty and exhausted.

“Circle up, girls,” Coach Marks bellowed and the girls surrounded
him in a loose circle. “My motto? No pain, no gain.” While he was giving his
“it was a good start, but you can do better” speech, Kimi bugged out her eyes
and blew out a sigh toward Addie. Kimi looked as tired as Addie felt.

He finished his speech and left the circle.

Kimi stuck her hand into the middle of the circle and said, “Hands
in, everybody. Owls on three. One, two, three!”

“Owls!” the girls cheered and followed up with a series of owl
hoots, which their parents answered with another round of hoots.

Addie laughed. She hadn’t expected people to start hooting all
over the place. It was weird, but kind of cool at the same time. She was just
about to ask Kimi how she was doing when the pretty coach with the braid walked
up and put out her hand. Addie shook it.

“Nice job,” the coach said and smiled. “We appreciate all the help
we can get. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Addie,” Kimi said, “this is Coach Cairns. She played for
Syracuse.”

“University?” Addie’s eyes grew wide.

“Yeah, for four years.” Coach Cairns grinned. “Attack.”

Addie scrunched up her nose, confused.

Coach Cairns laughed. “You don’t know much about lacrosse, do
you?”

“Not really,” Addie admitted.

They headed over to the sidelines where Kimi plopped to the ground
to change back into sneakers and stash her gear into her bag.

“Why don’t you try out?” Coach Cairns asked, her expression
serious.

Addie looked behind her. Surely Coach Cairns must be talking to
somebody else. “Me?”

“Yeah, you. I watched you chase those balls down on the sidelines,
why not do that on the field as a player?”

“Me? Play lacrosse?” Addie said again as if Coach Cairns was
talking some kind of Kazon alien language.

“I told her that, too, Coach,” Kimi said, “but she’s a little
scared because she’s never played before.”

Coach Cairns crossed her arms and frowned. “So what? Everyone on
this field, including me, had to learn at some point.” She shook her head.
“Nah, I’m not buying it. Next Saturday I want you dressed and ready to play.”

“I don’t have a stick,” Addie said lamely.

“You can use my extra one,” Kimi said.

“I don’t have shoes with knobbies on the bottom like yours,” Addie
said to Kimi.

“They’re called cleats,” Coach Cairns said, “and I can find you a
pair to borrow.”

“I don’t—”

“Nope. No more excuses,” Coach Cairns interrupted. “Just try it
out next Saturday, okay? We’ll even hook you up with goggles and a mouth guard.
And, look, if you don’t like it you don’t have to come back.” She exchanged a
knowing glance with Kimi.

“She’ll come back,” Kimi said with certainty. She stood up tall,
put one hand over her heart and the other in the air as if she were taking an
oath. “And on the eighth day, God created lacrosse.”

Coach Cairns burst out laughing which made Addie laugh, too. Coach
patted Kimi on the shoulder. “I’ll see you both next week.” She headed toward
Coach Marks who had called her over.

Addie was just about to tell Kimi how funny her eighth day joke
was when Coach Marks said to Coach Cairns, “Is the big-boned gal going to be
our manager? We could use a minion.”

Addie closed her ears. It was the second time the coach had called
her “big-boned” and she didn’t like it. She didn’t like it at all.

“C’mon, Addie,” Kimi grabbed her by the arm, “let’s go home.”

They headed toward the park exit.

Kimi squealed, making Addie jumped. “I can’t believe Coach Cairns
invited you to try out. That’s amazing. Can you come over for lunch today? We
can work on getting you ready for next Saturday. Oh my God, we only have one
week.”

“Okay,” Addie said feeling as helpless as the Kazon against
Captain Janeway and the Starship Voyager crew.